{"id":103,"date":"2022-11-22T10:39:09","date_gmt":"2022-11-22T15:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unsung.davidpogue.com\/?p=103"},"modified":"2023-10-29T11:36:56","modified_gmt":"2023-10-29T15:36:56","slug":"the-secret-of-baby-carrots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/2022\/11\/22\/the-secret-of-baby-carrots\/","title":{"rendered":"The Secret of Baby Carrots"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Season 2 \u2022 Episode 1<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you type the word \u201ccarrot\u201d into Google Images, you get thousands of photos of the classic root vegetable. They\u2019re all full-length, orange, straight, and pointy. Which is a little odd, because 70% of all the carrots we buy are, in fact, baby carrots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Or at least we think they\u2019re baby carrots. Turns out baby carrots aren\u2019t baby at all. And the story of their creation is twisty, uplifting, and super satisfying. It\u2019s all about a California carrot farmer with a distaste for waste\u2014and a frustrated ex-wife.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Guests:&nbsp;<\/strong>Jeff Huckaby, President and CEO of Grimmway Farms, and David Yurosek, co-originator of Bunny Luv baby carrots<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/unsung.davidpogue.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/unsungscience-20221122.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Episode Transcript<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Intro<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Baby carrots. They\u2019re on every Superbowl snack platter. They\u2019re in millions of school lunches. They\u2019re the carrots in cooked carrots.&nbsp;<strong>They\u2019re 70% of the carrots we buy, because we don\u2019t have to wash\u2019em, cut \u2018em, or peel \u2018em.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But here\u2019s the little secret about baby carrots:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">JEFF: Well, they\u2019re not actually baby carrots. They\u2019re harvested as a full-size carrot, taken into the facility where they\u2019re cut into two-inch pieces and peeled and put in a bag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">***<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019m David Pogue, and this is \u201cUnsung Science.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you ask a little kid to draw a carrot, they\u2019ll grab the orange crayon and draw the classic shape: Long, skinny, pointy at the end. Which is super weird, because odds are fairly good they\u2019ve never eaten anything like that in their lives.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The carrots they&nbsp;<em>have&nbsp;<\/em>encountered are almost certainly baby carrots. Two inches long, rounded at both ends, already peeled and washed, delicious and ready to eat. 70% of all the carrots we buy are, in fact, baby carrots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But, as promised by the title of this episode, baby carrots harbor a big secret. So let\u2019s get that out of the way right up front. The secret of baby carrots is this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">JEFF: Well, they\u2019re not actually baby carrots. They are pieces of carrots. They are indeed grown specifically to cut into two-inch pieces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That\u2019s Jeff Huckaby, the president and CEO of Grimmway Farms, which is the biggest carrot grower on the planet. And how big is big?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">JEFF: Grimmway Farms grows about 45,000 acres of carrots across the country. It equates to about 10 million pounds of carrots every day, six days a week, 52 weeks out of the year. It\u2019s a lotta carrots.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">POGUE: Ten million pounds a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">JEFF: People really like carrots.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We were sitting right next to one of his carrot farms in Bakersfield, California. Beautiful, bright-green crops in tidy rows stretched as far as the eye could see. They were about two weeks from being ready to harvest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And there\u2019s a reason this farm is in Bakersfield: It\u2019s a hot, dry place.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">JEFF: Carrots are grown mostly in very arid regions like Bakersfield. We do this for a reason. \/ you want to be able to time the irrigation so that you can stretch the root as long as possible and have it search for water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So when you get in these\u2013 climates where you have a lot of rainfall, you get a little short, stubby carrot because it feeds from the\u2013 the surface. So we try to drive these\u2013 carrots down as much as possible.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">POGUE: We have a garden in Connecticut. I tried so hard to grow carrots. Just never succeeded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">JEFF: No one can in their garden. It\u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">POGUE: What?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">JEFF: No one can. It\u2019s because the soil has to be so\u2013 you know\u2013 loose down to two to three feet. And you\u2019re not gonna sit there and rip your dirt into where it\u2019s very pliable for two to three feet down\u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">POGUE: They don\u2019t tell you that\u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">JEFF: Yeah, that\u2019s why people can\u2019t be very successful in their garden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Anyway. Grimmway has designed and built its own carrot-harvesting machine. It\u2019s a sight to behold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>SFX of harvester<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">JEFF: So you can\u2019t just go buy a carrot harvester off the the shelf over at your local tractor dealer. So we build \u2018em. They come through. And it takes three people basically. You have the driver. You have a guy on the back making sure the carrots are handled properly. And we can do about 25 tons of carrots about every 15 or 20 minutes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">25 tons every 15 minutes!? Are you tracking this? That is SO MANY carrots!&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Anyway. The harvester machine dumps them all into a truck rolling alongside it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">JEFF: And then truck is shuttled from here about a mile away to our facility. And then at that point, they\u2019re washed out. They go through a wash-out process that\u2013 you got a big boom of water. It washes, puts\u2013 recycled water on it that we\u2019re reusing over and over again. And then we\u2019ll change out every day or so.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">POGUE: Well, here\u2019s\u2013 here\u2019s where I revolutionize the carrot industry a second time. Since they\u2019re going to be peeled for us, why do you need to wash them first?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">JEFF: They come out dirty. You\u2019re dealing with a root that comes and it\u2019s grown in the dirt. (cont\u2019d) \/- you will see when you\u2019re harvesting, you bring a lotta dirt in with it. And so the carrot has to be really cleaned and scrubbed before you can actually peel it and cut it and put it in a bag and\u2013 and\u2013 and consider it ready to eat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">POGUE: Okay, so how does it get cut? It\u2019s not you with a knife, I take it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">JEFF: It\u2019s not. There wasn\u2019t a carrot cutter out there available that we could go buy off the shelf and do it. So we kinda took some other technologies and then adapted it. And we\u2019ve come out with\u2013 a model that we really like. We build it ourselves and\u2013 and adjust it to get the two-inch\u2013 carrot out of the long, you know, ten, 12, 14-inch carrot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The machine they adapted was originally designed for cutting&nbsp;<em>beans.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">JEFF: There were a number of things taken from other industries that said, \u201cYou know\u2013 just with some minor modifications, we can make that work on the\u2013 for the carrots.\u201d The bean cutter has been by far the best cutter that we have found. We just had to lengthen the throat a little bit. The carrot\u2019s a lot longer. And it\u2013 as it drops down it just takes a two-inch piece out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At this point, I grabbed a juicy orange baby carrot out of the bag and held it up in the sun.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">POGUE: And then once they\u2019ve been cut, this has somehow been rounded and peeled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">JEFF: That\u2019s correct. So when\u2013 after the\u2013 the product is cut, it still has the outer layer and the skin on it. And so it goes through a series of a peeler and then a polisher. And it\u2019s basically s\u2013 similar to sandpaper, grit rolls that it goes through. And as it goes through and tumbles, it has a tendency to round off the little end a little bit and then remove the skin. And then you have a fine polish that really makes it have a nice smooth finish and gets the final touches of the the skin off. And then we go through and then put it into the bags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[MUX]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">OK, the first secret is out: Baby carrots aren\u2019t baby at all.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But here\u2019s a second secret: Baby carrots were&nbsp;<em>invented&nbsp;<\/em>to hide nature\u2019s ugliness from our picky, picky eyes. And they were invented\u2014by this man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">YUROSEK: My name is David Yurosek. My father and I owned a company called \u201cMike Yurosek and Son,\u201d and we were the originators of\u2013 of the Bunny Luv baby carrots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mrs. Yurosek\u2014David\u2019s mom\u2014came up with the name Bunny Luv for the family\u2019s carrots. L-U-V, love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[MUX]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mrs. Yurosek was also a talented artist, so she also came up with the company logo\u2014which looks for all the world like Bugs Bunny in an apron. Warner Brothers was not pleased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">YUROSEK: Warner Bros. sued us. It looked too much like Bugs Bunny. My father gave it to my mother and said, \u201cFigure somethin\u2019 out.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She drew a sheaf of variations of that cartoon bunny, and the Yuroseks sent them off to Warner Brothers\u2019 lawyers, with an invitation to choose a logo that&nbsp;<em>they&nbsp;<\/em>would find acceptable. They did, and that\u2019s the version you see on the bags today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">POGUE: Still looks kinda like Miss Bugs Bunny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">YUROSEK: Yeah, we thought so. But, you know, Warner Bros. accepted it, so that\u2019s all we care.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Anyway. The logo lawsuit wasn\u2019t the Yuroseks\u2019s biggest headache. The waste was. It was a distressing fact of modern carrot farming: You had to throw away a huge fraction of your crop.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">YUROSEK: 35 to 45% of our carrots were rejected because of cosmetic situations. We couldn\u2019t even feed \u2018em to our cattle, \u2018cause the fat would turn orange, and so that didn\u2019t work. So we had really no viable alternative to utilize that product.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And why would you go to the trouble of raising delicious, nutritious carrots and then throw 400 tons of them away, every single day?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">YUROSEK: Well, carrots are basically\u2013 like any fruit or vegetable, are cosmetic. If it doesn\u2019t look good, they\u2019re not gonna buy it. But the nutrition and everything else is still there.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">POGUE: What are we talkin\u2019 about? A little discoloration? Or bent? Or\u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">YUROSEK: Bent, broken. Carrots get broken when they come in, so nobody\u2013 a consumer doesn\u2019t wanna buy a broken carrot that\u2019s broken in half. They\u2019re bent. And then we got involved with developing hybrid carrots. They\u2019re very beautiful carrots, sweet, but they also were very susceptible to different types of diseases. We started having something called \u201ccavity spotting,\u201d where there\u2013 a carrot is like\u2013 you know, has little root hairs that come out; eyelets, so to speak. And they would\u2013 that cavity spotting would affect that. There\u2019s also\u2013 it had a disease called \u201cblack crown,\u201d which the whole top of the carrot would kinda turn black. So those are some of the two biggest problems we were having in the sense of cosmetics. And so consequently, you know, that\u2019s what kinda drove me, as to say, \u201cOkay, how do we do something with that product and make it sellable to the consumer?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And by the way\u2014why&nbsp;<em>are<\/em>&nbsp;so many carrots misshapen? Here\u2019s Jeff Huckaby again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">JEFF: If you went out and dug in this field, just due to defects with\u2013 the carrot hits a rock and\u2013 and is crooked, or it splits, or you\u2019ve got some damage\u2013 you know, due to nematodes or something. No one wants a carrot that\u2019s crooked or split or something. Still eats well, but the consumer wants a nice, straight, orange\u2013 smooth carrot.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">POGUE: We\u2019re the consumers. We\u2019re the ones who say, \u201cI\u2019m not gonna eat that carrot. It\u2019s bent.\u201d Do you as an industry person, as a grower, do you think that that\u2019s an absurd position?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">JEFF: Well, I do. I mean, because there\u2019s nothing wrong with the carrot other than appearance.&nbsp;The consumer is kinda trained to have that picturesque carrot that is tapered nicely, that\u2019s smooth, that\u2013 is nice and straight. They all eat equally as well. And, you know, we get a lot of people that when the baby carrot gets in the bag, it will have a split to it. And those are the carrots I eat. Because the split is usually because it\u2019s got more sugar in it than the others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Anyway\u2014baby carrots were a brilliant solution! Once a carrot\u2019s been cut and peeled and polished before you even see it, you have no idea how bent or crooked or spotted the original carrot was. Everybody wins: You\u2019re spared all the effort of washing, cutting, and peeling, and the farmers can&nbsp;<em>use&nbsp;<\/em>the 40% of the crop they would have thrown away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, if you Google hard enough, you can find writeups of&nbsp;<em>that&nbsp;<\/em>origin story, about how the baby carrot was developed to let farmers sell their ugly carrots.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[THEME]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But there\u2019s a second origin story that\u2019s&nbsp;<em>never&nbsp;<\/em>been told\u2014the moment that pushed David Yurosek over the brink, that finally sent him to the baby-carrot drawing board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s the ex-wife story\u2014an \u201cUnsung Science\u201d exclusive. And after the break\u2026you\u2019ll hear it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Ad Break<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[MUX]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, most people telling the origin story of baby carrots mention the economic incentive that the Mike Yurosek and his son David had. They wanted to find a way to sell the nearly 40% of their crop that had cosmetic glitches, that we, the people, were too picky to eat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the baby carrot idea also solved a second problem\u2014an interpersonal one. Here\u2019s David Yurosek again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">YUROSEK: My ex-wife, Terry, made this meal that was carrots. It was cut-up carrots. She told me, \u201cWhy can\u2019t you do somethin\u2019 like this, so I don\u2019t spend three hours, you know, in a kitchen, making it?\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">POGUE: So she was taking three hours, doing what? Cutting \u2018em\u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">YUROSEK: Cutting them and peeling \u2018em.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Of course, she could have used pre-cut frozen carrots, which were a big deal at that time, in 1985. But Terry would have none of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">YUROSEK: Had to be fresh. She told me, \u201cThese got to be fresh.\u201d Frozen carrots and canned carrots lose about 35-40% of the nutritional value. And so that\u2019s when I said, \u201cOkay, we\u2019ll see what we can do.\u201d And I went the next day and thought about it and brought a couple of my guys in and said, \u201cWe need to figure out how to do this.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I gotta hand it to Dave Yurosek. To prepare for our interview, he\u2019d spent a few days calling up former colleagues and employees to piece together the details.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">YUROSEK: We had some great people. A couple of \u2018em have passed away, Sid Brown and\u2013 and Kent Williams. Kent Williams came up with the idea of having what we called a \u201cfocus group.\u201d And I said, \u201cWhat is a focus group?\u201d And he looked at me. Said, \u201cYou don\u2019t know what it is?\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Yuroseks OK\u2019ed the focus group. This was a big moment. They\u2019d spent millions of dollars developing these two-inch, ready-to-cook carrots, in hopes of appealing to home cooks like Terry\u2026 in hopes of displacing some of the&nbsp;<em>frozen&nbsp;<\/em>carrots that people were using in their cooking. The focus group was asked the critical question: Would you cook with these?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">YUROSEK: And so he came back and says, \u201cI\u2019ve got good news and bad news.\u201d And I said, \u201cWell\u2013 give me the good news first.\u201d And he says, \u201cThey love the carrots.\u201d So I said, \u201cLove the carrots? What can the bad news be?\u201d He said, \u201cThey don\u2019t want it for cooking.\u201d I said, \u201cWhat do ya mean?\u201d \u201cThey want \u2018em for\u2013 to use \u2018em for snacks. They loved it, just to sit\u2013 put \u2018em in dip, and do this and that.\u201d I said, \u201cKent, that\u2019s great news. I thought you wanted to cook \u2018em.\u201d I said, \u201cNow we\u2019re in what I call a snack industry. We\u2019re against Fritos, potato chips,\u201d and I said, \u201cNow that\u2019s a multi-billion-dollar industry we can compete against.\u201d And at that point, basically it was kinda the\u2013 if you say the old thing of \u201cEureka\u201d for me, I said, \u201cGuys, damn the torpedoes. Full speed ahead!\u201d And so we built a plant. We retrofitted the plant that we had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">POGUE: So the original idea was not then necessarily for snacking?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">YUROSEK: No.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">POGUE: You thought for cookin\u2019?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">YUROSEK: Yep. Yeah, my wife\u2013 going back to the story I told ya, I gotta make somethin\u2019 where the housewife can cook faster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">POGUE: So was the focus group the first indication that you had, that this could be gigantic?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">YUROSEK: I don\u2019t know if we thought it was gigantic. It was the first time that \u2014 we obviously didn\u2019t know how big it was going to be, but we realized that we had something that was feasible.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, if you\u2019ve been listening closely, you realize that the Night of the Ex-Wife Carrot Dish took place in 1985, and baby carrots ultimately hit the market in 1990. So what took five years?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Turns out it wasn\u2019t so easy to develop this new carrot format.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">YUROSEK: A lot of times we had train wrecks, you know? We thought we had the idea; then it didn\u2019t work. Example\u2013 we\u2013 when we finally got to the point we could put \u2018em in a bag, okay\u2013 the bag would just go like a balloon. And we\u2019re kinda looking\u2013 \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong with this bag?\u201d Well, it was the fact that the carrots have to breathe. They\u2019re still respirating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">POGUE: Huh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">YUROSEK: And so then we came with the idea\u2013 a very simple idea. We put a thumbtack on a roller where the bags came down, and the thumbtack put a little hole in \u2018em. Solution to the problem. For three or four years, we used that concept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But letting the extra air out of the bags was only the beginning of the problems.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">YUROSEK: This guy came and said, \u201cDave, I wanna show ya somethin\u2019.\u201d I said, \u201cYeah?\u201d He said, \u201cSee this\u2013 these carrots have all turned white?\u201d And I go, \u201cYeah.\u201d \u201cLook at the ends of \u2018em.\u201d And he\u2019d cut \u2018em with a knife. They weren\u2019t white. And so then he put it under a microscope, and he said, \u201cLook at all this roughness on the carrot, is what turns \u2018em white and then causes the oxidation.\u201d But where it\u2019s smooth, that\u2019s not there, so there isn\u2019t that process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The cut ends of the carrot never turned white. Only the sides, which had been polished by the sandpaper machines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">YUROSEK: The thing is to try to do it, you know, knife to cut it very clean and everything else, to kinda peel it just by hand, to see what would happen. And they all stayed orange. And so we went back to the company that made these peelers. We went back to them and said, \u201cCan you put different grit in these?\u201d And the grit, again, is like the sandpaper. So we were using like an 80 grit. And he said, \u201cYeah, we can go\u2013 we can go to a finer grit.\u201d So we said, \u201cOkay, let\u2019s go to\u2013 let\u2019s try\u2013 let\u2019s try a\u2013 50.\u201d Well, that didn\u2019t work. \u201cLet\u2019s try a 30.\u201d That didn\u2019t work. We kept going down on that grit. Finally got down to a 20, and then we said, \u201cOkay.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They\u2019d finally gotten the carrot pieces so smooth, they no longer turned white shortly after being cut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But to this day, baby carrots&nbsp;<em>do&nbsp;<\/em>start turning white once they\u2019ve been exposed to the air a while. Here\u2019s how Jeff Huckaby explains it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">JEFF: We\u2019ve taken and scraped the skin off. And so it\u2019s a little bit of an oxidation that happens\u2013 as it dries out.&nbsp; And\u2013 you know, temperature a little bit. So the colder they stay and under the ideal conditions, that whiting doesn\u2019t go there. You can take this and put it back into water, and boom, all of a sudden it rehydrates. The whiting goes away.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the question remained: How do you stop carrots from getting dry in the bag? In shipping? In the store shelves? The Yuroseks confronted yet another showstopper. They\u2019d just traded one cosmetic problem for another one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">YUROSEK: They started\u2013 you know, getting dry in the bag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">POGUE: Oh\u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">YUROSEK: So we said, \u201cOkay, what do we do about that?\u201d You know, and Mark Bunch came up with this idea of putting water right as the bag was being sealed, and it would shoot a little shot of water in it. And so he built this contraption. These machines go like this: the bag comes down, and it drops the carrots, and it goes like this.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He\u2019s demonstrating with his hands how the carrots fall vertically into the open bag below them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">YUROSEK: (cont\u2019d) Each time I\u2019d do that, I\u2019d shoot a little bit of water into it before the clamp would close to seal it. And all of a sudden that problem wasn\u2019t there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">POGUE: Wow\u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">YUROSEK: So it just\u2013 it was just a series of figurin\u2019 out what to do.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Finally, after five years of problem solving, the family was ready to start selling to grocery stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When the Yuroseks did the math, it looked like&nbsp;<em>everyone&nbsp;<\/em>would come out ahead. Yeah, consumers would much pay more for baby carrots per pound\u2014but they were getting a lot more carrot. When you buy full-size carrots, you waste a lot of what you\u2019ve bought.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">YUROSEK: They\u2019ve gotta peel it and you gotta cut the top off. You can\u2019t eat that. You gotta cut maybe the tip of the carrot off. You can\u2019t use that. There\u2019s a lot more throwaway. So you\u2019re paying for that. So that\u2019s when I started talking with buyers, you know, like\u2013 Stop &amp; Shop, who was the first one that bought carrots from us. I explained to the buyers\u2013 I\u2019d say, \u201cYou know, there\u2019s no waste in this. There\u2019s no waste in that bag there. Everything can be used.\u201d I told \u2018em, \u201clook at your profit. If you sell 1 million pounds of carrots a month, at this, you\u2019re gonna make X amount of dollars.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(cont\u2019d):&nbsp; I had this all figured out, and I showed him. I said, \u201cWell, try it and see what happens.\u201d And so he did and found out that it was\u2013 it was true. He made more money with those than he did with the regular carrots. And so they all of a sudden started expanding the shelf space for the cut-and-peeled and carrots like that.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Within one year, Americans were buying more than&nbsp;<em>twice&nbsp;<\/em>as many carrots as before\u2014from six pounds a year per person, to 10 pounds\u2014all because the cut-and-peeled models were so convenient.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, in the beginning, what made the Yuroseks miserable was that they had too many carrots with cosmetic defects. But now, with the exploding popularity of baby carrots, they didn\u2019t have&nbsp;<em>enough!&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">YUROSEK: All of a sudden we didn\u2019t have enough product for our cut-and-peeled. So we started actually sending regular carrots, you know, a certain size over to the plant. We started using\u2013 stealing from Peter to give to Paul, if you will.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now the company was using perfectly straight, long, unblemished carrots\u2014for baby carrots. Eventually, they started growing new fields of carrots&nbsp;<em>exclusively&nbsp;<\/em>for cutting and peeling into baby-carrot bags.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At that point, it was only a small logical leap to realize: Maybe they should start breeding special&nbsp;<em>varieties&nbsp;<\/em>for baby carrots. Here\u2019s Jeff Huckaby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">JEFF: We are growing specific varieties for cut and peel. You know, the older, full-size carrot had a little bit of a core inside it. So when you would cut it, you could see the core. So a lot of the breeding over the years has been to try to reduce that core just for a better palate. So that, you know, when you crunched it, you didn\u2019t have a hard center or anything. They have a tendency to be a little sweeter.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Carrots have come a long way since the bad old days of 1985, when 40% of the crop wound up getting thrown away. These days, carrots are one of the least wasteful crops in the world. Grimmway Farms uses every millimeter of every carrot.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">JEFF: So we need as many two-inch pieces out of a carrot as we can get. Usually the top piece, because this is where the crown attachment is, is not the most aesthetically pleasing piece. So we usually chop this off.&nbsp;But it\u2019s still usable. We\u2019re still able to take that. You can still shred it and make\u2013 shredded carrots for the salad companies. Or a lot of it can go into juice. Nothing wrong with it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>(cont\u2019d)&nbsp;<\/em>So if you taken that piece off, you have one, two, maybe three, sometimes four actual cuts. The longer the carrot, the more cuts that we get. And then there\u2019s a different size. It\u2019s thicker at the top, and then it tapers down to where the smaller could be what we consider a \u201ccarrotini.\u201d And it goes into, like, the little one and two-ounce bags for the school lunches. So it\u2019s a petite little piece off the end.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">POGUE: Carrotinis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">JEFF: Yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">POGUE: Never heard that term in my life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">JEFF: Yes, that\u2019s what we call the little ones. And\u2013 and\u2013 that\u2019s the ones that you see mostly in the schools in the little snack packs.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">POGUE: But what about all the pulpy stuff that is polished away?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">JEFF: From a tonnage standpoint \u2014 is very minimal. It gets hauled off to cattle feed. The dairy menwill take it. And they\u2019ll mix it with their rations and stuff. And it becomes a really good food supplement that are given to the cows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">POGUE: And how about the greens? Does that go anywhere?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">JEFF: We\u2019ve tried\u2013 using them as animal feed. But we found that it\u2019s better as an organic matter to just turn them back under and put \u2018em in the field.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">POGUE: How about this idea? You get a bean cutter. You cut \u2018em into two-inch segments. You market them\u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">JEFF: Market\u2013 carrot tops.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yurosek and Sons went on to develop packages of carrot curls, carrot sticks, and shredded carrots; at one point, they even tried to develop&nbsp;<em>actual&nbsp;<\/em>baby carrots\u2014carrots that were still tiny when fully grown. But nothing ever approached the success of the baby carrots. Eventually, the Yuroseks cashed out; they sold Bunny Luv to their rival, Grimmway Farms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the effects of their invention weren\u2019t limited to carrots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">YUROSEK: All the industry saw, \u201cWait a minute. These guys have got these carrots. We can do this with lettuce. We can do this with broccoli. We can do this with cauliflower.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>(cont\u2019d)&nbsp;<\/em>People started going to salads. You know, broccoli spears. Every time I walk into a produce section of a store, I kinda smile and see all these things and go, \u201cYeah, we\u2013 we were the ones that created that,\u201d you know?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">POGUE: So it wasn\u2019t just baby carrots that this idea launched? It was a domino effect?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">YUROSEK: Yes, sir. You know, in those days\u2013 probably 100% of what was on the produce shelf in the store was vegetables in their original form, so to speak.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[MUX]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">POGUE: I mean, everywhere you go, you see baby carrots. Do you take pride every time you see that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">YUROSEK: I don\u2019t try to say it\u2019s me. You know, it was a team that did this. The Wright brothers, you know, they started out wanting to fly an airplane. They did. Thomas Alva Edison wanted to make a light bulb. He did, you know? So you kinda have that great moment that you feel, \u201cWe did it,\u201d you know? So, you know, so it\u2019s nice to still walk in a store and see \u2018em there. And I go, \u201cAll right.\u201d Tell my wife, \u201cThat was me. Man, we did that,\u201d you know?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>UNSUNG SCIENCE with David Pogue is presented by Simon &amp; Schuster and CBS News, and produced by PRX Productions.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Executive Producers for Simon &amp; Schuster are Richard Rhorer and Chris Lynch.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The PRX production team is Jocelyn Gonzales, Morgan Flannery, Pedro Rafael Rosado and Morgan Church<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Jesi Nelson composed the Unsung Science theme music, and our fact checker is Kristina Rebelo. Special thanks to Olivia Noble<\/strong><br><strong>For more on the show, visit unsungscience.com. Go to my website at<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/davidpogue.com\/\"><strong>&nbsp;David Pogue.com<\/strong><\/a><strong>&nbsp;or follow me: @Pogue on your social media platform of choice. Be sure to like and FOLLOW Unsung Science wherever you get your podcasts.<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_6776\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-103-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/unsung.davidpogue.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/unsungscience-20221122.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/unsung.davidpogue.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/unsungscience-20221122.mp3\">https:\/\/unsung.davidpogue.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/unsungscience-20221122.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/unsung.davidpogue.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/unsungscience-20221122.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/?powerpress_pinw=103-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/unsung.davidpogue.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/unsungscience-20221122.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"unsungscience-20221122.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you type the word \u201ccarrot\u201d into Google Images, you get thousands of photos of the classic root vegetable. They\u2019re all full-length, orange, straight, and pointy. Which is a little odd, because 70% of all the carrots we buy are, in fact, baby carrots.<span class=\"excerpt-more-link\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/2022\/11\/22\/the-secret-of-baby-carrots\/\">More <svg class=\"svg-icon\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" aria-hidden=\"true\" role=\"img\" focusable=\"false\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"><path fill-rule=\"evenodd\" clip-rule=\"evenodd\" d=\"M6.96954 10.2804L11.9999 15.3107L17.0302 10.2804L15.9695 9.21973L11.9999 13.1894L8.0302 9.21973L6.96954 10.2804Z\" fill=\"currentColor\"\/><\/svg><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"excerpt-audio-block\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/unsung.davidpogue.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/unsungscience-20221122.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123,"href":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103\/revisions\/123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unsungscience.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}